I noticed a few links at the bottom of the story:
From
Pat Forde's College football season predictions:
9. The one unit in all of college football with the most on its shoulders is: BYU's secondary. If that quartet of new starters comes through, the Cougars can go 12-0 and crash the BCS. If not, how does a fourth straight Las Vegas Bowl sound? The good news for BYU is that the two high-profile early tests (at Washington on Sept. 6 and UCLA on Sept. 13) are against teams that don't throw the ball with great distinction.
...and from
Schlabach's '08-09 Bowl Predictions:
Tostitos Fiesta: Oklahoma Sooners vs. BYU Cougars
(Subject of previous thread)
...and
Schlabach's preseason top 25:
13. BYU Cougars - The Cougars have their sights set on a BCS bowl invitation, but they'll have to do it without top fullback Manase Tonga. The senior was ruled academically ineligible and will miss the 2008 season. Tonga ran for 305 yards and eight touchdowns and caught 27 passes for 248 yards last season. He also was a great lead blocker for Harvey Unga, who last year became the first BYU freshman to run for more than 1,000 yards in a season.
Wow! The ESPN machine is really firing up here. It
is flattering that BYU is getting this powerful national respect (especially from BCS homer ESPN) so far before the kickoff, but it's also important to remember that there's nothing the news media likes more than to be proven correct. It's one thing for an ESPN pundit to say it, it's something else entirely for the Harris voters and the Coaches to agree (see Tyrone Willingham and Les Miles' votes in the final Coaches Poll last year - and how BYU, at 10-2, was suspiciously absent from "their" Top 25 Hmm.)
Interest from the Sports Writers is not bad news for BYU though; if ESPN didn't think it would happen, they wouldn't be telling everyone to watch out for it. I'd call it further validation of past efforts, combined with realistic expectations of future success.
Thank you. Adds something to a dull summer day. Almost as exciting as reading Cruiser posts, though Cruiser would definitely have mentioned Sorenson and Tialalevea. were starting to get down there guys, down to about two months until the first game. Hang in there.
